Spirited Away
by fire-emblem-girl
Summary: Set after MGS4. Sunny, Otacon and Snake's life returns to normal or about as normal as it can get. Long fic is long. One shot. Kind of hinted Snake/Otacon


Spirited Away

It wasn't particularly stressful-this life preceding the final fight against the Patriots. Except by the same token it _was_. Maybe their everyday routine didn't include blowing up giant robots, killing brother obsessed freaks or dealing with a 'vampire' that liked going around knifing people's relatives(blood related or not) but it still had Otacon bitching, Sunny cooking and Snake wondering where the hell he fit into the grand scheme of things. Other than that he didn't really. Being a blue rose, manmade, an inhuman monster and all that jazz. But he'd stuck around the Nomad anyhow and carved out some sort of existence beyond being super soldier Solid Snake. Replaced were conflicts with other governments and agents-in their place was the growing concern of where Sunny would be going to school, if the other kids would pick on her and perhaps the most pressing matter of all. Boys. "What about boys?!" Otacon continuously whispered to him at night like it was some kind of secret that males existed outside their own little piece of home. As far as he was concerned boys could wait-Sunny was cute enough and if it was in the cards for her she'd find someone. Not that he'd be around to interrogate the guy. No, Snake would probably be dead in short order.

"Dave?"

He almost didn't answer yet unused to being referred to by his actual name instead of Snake. He kind of preferred Snake. Snake sounded cooler for one. But he'd live being called Dave because Snake also brought up unpleasant memories-not that Dave _didn't_ there were just less. The lesser of two evils really.

"Hn."

"I need you to look over these brochures with me."

His eyebrow raised, slightly curious as to _why_ he needed to and exactly _what_ these brochures were for. Though he had an idea. And if those ideas were correct he really had no interest.

"They're for schools. I think I'd prefer Sunny to be in a private school and it'd be better for her education since she's probably smarter than a lot of the other kids and I wouldn't want her to get bored and act out or even worse for the other kids to make fun of her for being so intelligent and shove her in lockers or cut off her hair or give her swirlies."

Snake assumed Otacon didn't know how utterly ridiculous he sounded. Naturally Otacon didn't _usually_ thus it would be kind of unrealistic to expect that to happen now. "Doubt…that'll happen."

"Well…you never know. Preventing the problem is best right? I mean just think of all the trouble that could've been prevented if...Naomi hadn't developed…"

"…What school's?"

The bespectacled man sighed, "one's pretty far from here. But…"

"It's not …a problem."

"Right. Her education is most important. This one has a bunch of extracurricular activities and I've read on the internet it's a good school but it's a bit on the pricey side…"

The older man could tell the brunette was more than a little distressed at all the prospects and would be having a nervous breakdown after immediately if he didn't take his worries a little less seriously. He gestured to the space beside him on the couch and Otacon took a seat, one hand massaging his temple.

"I don't want to cheap out on her education but I really can't afford any of the schools I'd like to send her to."

"Ask her."

"Where she wants to go? But…she's not…Dave you're always taking the easy way out of decisions. I'm trying to make a choice that would be best for our da-Sunny and you're telling me to let her choose? I…That's…That's…"

"A good idea."

Hal cleared his throat, "well…I wouldn't say good but…"

"Heh."

Of course telling Otacon to let Sunny choose was Sunny's idea so he couldn't take credit for it completely but some things were all in the execution which the girl would probably learn later. Hopefully not from Otacon who had a disastrously bad track record with that kind of crap.

"Snake!"

"Wh…What now Otacon?" he had to wonder what had him so worked up that he'd slipped and called him Snake.

"What if she tells people about us!? All the kids will laugh at her and beat her up for having two men taking care of her!"

He was beginning to think Otacon had been bullied as a child. Just a hunch. Besides, didn't they have books for that sort of thing now "that penguin has two mommies" or some damn thing Snake didn't know about? Because obviously he _hadn't_ read the stupid book and thus didn't know it was a book about a penguin with two fathers. Obviously. Because Sunny wasn't their child and therefore it was okay. He and Otacon were just two friends who occasionally shared a bed who just happened to have a kid who wasn't theirs living with them. She wasn't their adopted daughter like some people would come to believe because that was ridiculous plus Snake was too old to have a kid that young. Regardless of who was or wasn't someone's adopted child they (meaning Hal) still had to figure out what they would do about clothes and books and transportation. Because while Snake didn't have a problem with dropping the kid off at school in the Nomad Otacon did. Because Otacon took issue with everything being that he was Otacon and socially retarded.

"Princess whatever…her face…is on TV."

"Princess Mononoke!? English or Japanese?! Who am I kidding what does it matter?!"

The Clint Eastwood movie that Snake had been casually glancing at every so often when he wasn't busy coughing up most of his innards flipped to the news then the kid's station. He recognized this particular anime only because his companion had watched it about 50 times in his presence-that and Spirited Away which was usually a preclude to Gundam Wing Endless Waltz or The End of Evangelion. All of which Snake tended to fall asleep during. In fact the only anime he had seen to the end remained Ninja Scroll and only because it had been particularly bloody. And even that had pushed it. It didn't help that Otacon liked to turn off all the lights.

Like now, just after the effeminate main character had fought that huge blob thing his eyelids began to droop. He'd almost dropped off too when Hal suddenly jumped to his feet letting him fall unceremoniously to the cushions. The sound of popping sounded over the classical music playing from the music and only when the microwave beeped did the hacker return to the couch. Snake pushed himself back up into a sitting position with a little trouble then went back to 'watching' the movie with Otacon. This time he actually got to see the forest spirit.

"Snake?"

"Hn?"

"Did you ask Uncle Hal?"

"Yeah. Good luck kid."

She wrapped her small arms around his torso and grinned, "I'm really happy to be going to school! I bet I'll get to meet a bunch of people there right?"

He nodded.

"Are you and Uncle Hal going to come with me on the first day of school?"

He hadn't pondered that. Mostly because he'd assumed Sunny wouldn't want him coming along-he didn't exactly form a perfect picture of a father figure. His face for one thing and the increasingly bad cough the other. Stranger yet was that she wanted both of them to come. Otacon he could understand. Otacon would be the logical choice. But she'd asked if the two of them would go.

"Yeah."

"Hurray! Have you ever been to school Snake? What's it like? I saw some on TV but stuff on TV isn't the same is it?"

He shook his head. He hadn't really. Les Enfants Terribles had undergone education but never in a traditional school environment and never with traditional subjects. He highly doubted target practice was taught in regular schools.

"How come? Did your mom and dad teach you? I thought maybe I wanted that but…I want to meet some people! Do you think…other kids will think I'm weird?"

'Don't start like Hal' he wanted to say but he shrugged. "Might."

She crossed her arms over her chest, bottom lip stuck out, "Snake, don't say jokes like that if you don't mean them! Young girls need to be reassured! That's what everyone says anyway."

One of his hands moved to her head and messed up the hair.

"So you don't think I'm strange? Okay. Well, I didn't think I was anyway but it's good to be reassured right?"

He wondered when she'd started to grow up so much. Lost her stutter and started wanting to make friends and go out like the other kids. Her face still looked the same though-kind of chubby. Cute but didn't cover up that she knew things other kids didn't or really shouldn't. Still Sunny. But definitely getting older.

"Hey Snake? Uncle Hal says I can go to the public school really close to here. He's really worried about though isn't he? I think he's kind of a worry wart."

He smirked. She had the other man pegged that was for sure.

"I'm going to go play now Snake, do you want to come?"

The man shook his head and she smiled.

"That's okay, it's kind of cold out."

Snake the soldier had been felled by cold weather. But she was right. His bones protested at even the slightest breeze usually ending in him falling over or close to it. Likewise it being too hot made breathing harder than hell so unless conditions were perfect Snake didn't get out of the Nomad much. She ran off to go do whatever girls her age did and he sat in medical bay looking at things in jars. Hell, he had probably been a thing in a jar once. Since clones didn't really just show up. Especially not clones like Solidus. He coughed up a lung-he didn't need it anyway.

"Dave? Why are you in here?"

He shrugged.

"Sunny starts school next week. The school not far from here."

"Hn. Told me."

"She did? I guess she's excited."

Otacon picked up a few bottles off the shelves then put them back where he'd gotten them from.

"Hal. You're a …worrywart."

"Can you blame me? She's never been in school or around other kids. It…It's kind of scary leaving her with someone else."

He knew Vamp had entered the otaku's brain despite the guy being dead not to mention people not affiliated with any government organization didn't tend to go around attacking random people. Besides that there was always the fear that something not necessarily violent would happen. Like what had happened between Otacon and his stepmother. He didn't miss the look Hal gave other people that so much as glanced at Sunny the wrong way.

"Can take care of herself. She'll be…fine. Worrywart."

"H-Hey! Don't act like you aren't!"

Snake shook his head with a chuckle, "Hal."

"If anything were to happen to her…"

"It won't."

"But…If it does…" he could hear it in the other man's voice-distrust. Because of course no one else could take care of Sunny, no one else could protect her from scary things even if it was Snake's pant leg she'd tugged on when she'd had a bad dream.

"Hal," he motioned for him to come over. The glasses were removed, one arm hooking the spectacles to the turtleneck. The slightly unfocused eyes examined his face and lingered too long on the scarred portion as usual. Dave took one of the clenched hands in a rare display of tenderness. "Give yourself an ulcer."

"I'm sure I've already got one," Otacon sighed, "I know he's dead but…"

"Dead as…dirt."

"I know. But I keep on thinking that maybe it was all a trick. That he'll show up any second. I wouldn't be able to protect her just like I couldn't do anything about Nao-"

The former soldier wanted to say something about it. Maybe that all of that hadn't been Otacon's fault, that he would protect Sunny but Hal wouldn't believe him and saying anything about running around like he had before made even Snake want to laugh. A gun he could use-like riding a bike you never forgot-but fist fights were out of the question now. And even if he could get a gun he would have to pray for a miracle to actually walk over there and shoot at the person. The hacker let his face fall into Snake's shoulder of course already crying because Otacon was the type to give up if he failed in an unfamiliar situation, to cry when he was scared or frustrated or happy. But it'd always been like that so Dave no longer got angry instead placing a wrinkled hand on the brunette's back and moving it in slow circles.

"Dave, is it wrong for me to want to keep her here instead of letting her go?"

"Hn."

"I-I thought you'd say that. Okay. I'm okay now."

They stayed standing there a little longer until Snake had to sit down.

"I guess I should go ask her if she wants to go clothes shopping. She'll need new clothes."

Snake nodded and watched them go a little while later. He stayed inside the Nomad, idly watching the news in the living room until they got back. Apparently the Miss America pageant was next week-he would've set the TV to record it but that was like deluding himself into thinking that he wasn't going to die soon. Hell, he might not even be alive next week. Only next week was when Sunny started school and she wanted him to go with her so he wanted to be alive for that. And for Otacon. And because even if it wasn't the most interesting existence it was still an existence. He wasn't ready to give it up yet.

By the time the two returned from the stores he'd fallen asleep from boredom. His eyes snapped open the second they came in though.

"Phew, I'm glad that's over."

"I don't think I like shopping very much Uncle Hal."

"Me neither Sunny."

The bags rustled as they were placed on the tiny dining room table and Sunny and Otacon sat down on either side of him both letting out a huge sigh.

"That was tiring! Snake, you're lucky you don't have to worry about clothes! Uncle Hal wouldn't let me go home until I had one outfit for every day of the week."

"Well…It's…important…"

"Heh."

"You laugh now but you don't know how cruel kids can be!"

Snake supposed that was true in a sense. He didn't know how cruel regular kids could be-he knew how Solidus and Liquid could be though that was a whole different kettle of fish entirely.

~~**~~

Today he'd made it through half of one of Otacon's anime. A stupid one about a witch delivering crap he didn't give a crap about but it remained marginally interesting, or rather, cute until the middle. When he fell asleep against Hal's shoulder, snoring loudly into the other man's ear.

He woke up in the hacker's room as it usually happened when he ended up passing out on the couch instead of on a bed. His medication had been laid out on the night stand in labelled containers. Asprin among other things to dull some of the pain and cough suppressants which didn't really do much of anything considering FOXDIE couldn't be combated by regular meds. He took them anyway. As a kind of comfort-for both him and Otacon. His body groaned in protest when the man sat up then he hobbled to the bathroom. Hal yawned at him when he returned and stared at him with bleary eyes. The brown hair stuck up in odd directions.

"Huh? Dave? What is it?"

"Bathroom."

"Oh. What time's it?"

"9am."

"Hm…Come back to bed Dave," the brunette murmured.

He did what he was asked mostly because to get up for the day meant he would have to deal with the random crap that would no doubt occur. Meryl would probably call him, ask how things were and maybe even Rose would decide to 'check up' on them. Hal smiled before running his hand through the grey hair.

"Did Sunny ask you to go with her to school?"

"Hn."

"Are you up to it?"

The question was meant to be caring but at the same time it made him feel even weaker. He nodded because he wanted to be there for the kid regardless of how much work it took for him to even just walk around like a normal person. Fighting against the Patriots had been easy-it had been something he had to do not something he wanted to. But he didn't have much strength anymore to do what he wanted. Just one more mission, just one more fight and then he could retire that had been his mantra once the conflict had gotten stale, once he got no joy out of doing his job and became a tool to be used. It seemed like he'd fought one fight too many though.

"Dave, you really do want to risk it?"

"Dammit Hal…I'm not dying yet."

"I know. I'm sorry. But you really should be careful. You never know what could happen."

"Why don't you just…get me a medic alert then?" he snorted. Clearly joking but Otacon looked slightly serious probably because of being ready to drop back into sleeping at any second.

"Maybe…for your," he yawned, "birthday."

Somehow Snake didn't think his bed mate had been listening very closely. Regardless they abandoned any hope of carrying on further conversation in favour of just going back to sleep-god knew they both deserved and needed it after all the nights spent drinking energy drinks to stay awake. Dave slung one arm over the other man's side, pulling his back closer to the torso that had started going to seed due to lack of consistent exercise. Oh well, old people usually weren't the skinniest people anyway the ex-soldier figured and living on ramen for the past few years hadn't been kind on Otacon either. He went to sleep to the sound of Hal muttering under his breath about something-probably anime. Somehow it was oddly soothing.

~~**~~

"Uncle Hal!"

"Hm? What? Metal Gear?!"

She laughed at him, "of course not! It's time for me to go to school! I made my own breakfast and I got ready but now there's still an hour left!"

"Oh, right. Alright Sunny, I'm up. Dave, are you coming?"

"Hnnn dammit Otacon…"

"Snake! The sun's already up, you know what that means? It's time to go to school!"

He really couldn't believe the week had passed by that fast. Nor did he want to think Sunny was making them go through a drill. Either way it was bad. She didn't jump on the bed but stood at the end bouncing on her heels. She had a couple of hairclips holding her bangs back-pink and blue to match the shirt she wore over a pair of khaki capris. The outfit didn't look much unlike her default attire from a couple of years ago but Snake reasoned that people didn't like changing too quickly. They got out of bed, ate the eggs she prepared for them and started towards the school. Walking of course because anything else would be 'strange' and besides that Hal was already having a fit about the entire thing so it was best just to let him do what he wanted. Since he tended to do that anyway.

The walk wasn't far and Solid Snake would've been able to run there and back 50 times without getting tired but Dave couldn't. Dave could straighten his back, hold back his coughs and look as healthy as he could muster but still not manage to completely dispel the image of a thoroughly old man who should probably have been confined to a nice armchair at the very least. But they made it. And people's eyes gravitated towards them because my god did you just see that cute little girl with the two men escorting her and is that one her father and look at that other one he looks like he might just keel over at any second! Still Sunny wore a hesitant smile-not quite sure if she wanted to be here but at the same time completely sure she didn't want to give up without giving the place a chance. The threesome moved past the playground and into the school building itself. Pretty standard, brick and cheerfully painted walls with pictures drawn by the younger kids plastered on the corkboards that popped up every so often. Snake tried to imagine what it would've been like going to a school like this. He couldn't. They moved at a crawl to the principal's office where mercifully there were chairs.

Dave sat down. The secretaries looked at him even though he'd covered up the bad side of his face. Hal went up to the counter with Sunny in tow-he was the one with legal custody after all.

"It's my first day at school you know."

"Oh really? You've never been to school before?"

"Nope! Uncle Hal taught me everything," the girl grinned.

"Isn't that nice? Well, I'm sure you'll have a great time here at school too."

"I'm sure I will."

The kid was cute; he had to give her that. Even having very little experience with people hadn't managed to damper her desire for social interaction apparently. Which was where she visibly differed from Otacon.

Hal sat by the phone all day pacing back and forth like an expectant father in a waiting room except he wasn't expecting good news. Dave watched him at it for awhile. 5 steps one way then 5 steps back in a constant vigil that would be broken by the sound of a telephone ringing. He knew what the hacker was waiting for-the call that would say "there's been an accident". Half way through the day the bespectacled man was able to be lured away from his post by anime-someone's moving something or other. He managed to make it three quarters through before walking away to go do something else. So he took to sitting by the phone which of course was merely a coincidence and not anything to do with anything since it wasn't like he was worried about Sunny. There was no reason to be even if the probability that the school would be outfitted for terrorist attacks or other such disasters likely dipped into a percentile he didn't want to think of. The movie ended and Hal went back to pacing. Neither of the men spoke until the phone rang. Snake snatched it before his partner could and answered calmly.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Snake! School is over now so could you and Uncle Hal come pick me up?"

"Hn."

He hung up. Because Snake wasn't used to talking to anyone on an actual phone and people tended to just hang up on him during codec calls so he'd got it into his head that it was acceptable.

"Who was it? Dave, there's nothing wrong is there?"

"No. She just wants…us to come get her."

They went. People looked at them strangely again but Sunny's…sunny mood blew the stares away. She rambled on about the different subjects she'd learned about, the kids in her class and the school building in general. She too remarked that it was unlikely the school could handle anything major in terms of military strikes. She'd examined the building during lunch time.

"The other kids kind of ignored me except for the girls. I think it's because I'm new. And I answered the teacher's questions really easily. They're not very hard but it's still fun."

"Nobody bothered you did they?"

"Nope! You really are a worrywart Uncle Hal! Everything went just fine. Yup," she nodded to affirm the fact to both herself and her guardians, "I can't wait to go tomorrow too!"

Dave walked in the door and made a beeline for the bed. He hated it of course and did everything he could to try and stop himself but he still ended up there anyway. And if he hadn't gone on his own Hal would've made sure that he had. He didn't sleep. Just lay there for awhile to rest his deteriorating body. But he'd done something he'd wanted to do. He'd taken Sunny to school and picked her up. She was safe for now. They ate dinner at the dining room table while being filled in to the finer details of the girl in their care's day.

~~**~~

Sunny had gone out to a sleepover with her friends leaving Hal and Dave alone. They did the usual-watched the news, commenting on the lack of patriot related news and then finally a movie. Anime of course. Spirited Away. Commenting that he was tired Otacon went ahead to bed. Snake continued watching the stupid movie. Who watched this crap anyway(besides Otacon)? Who had thought this movie would be a good idea? But he watched it to the end. The credits rolled and Dave closed his eyes.

I love imagining these three as a family with stupid family problems so I wrote it. I think someone randomly jumping out and stabbing your sister would probably fuck up anyone. Sunny is the last "woman" in Hal's life so I figured it'd be only natural that he'd be disturbingly protective of Sunny or even think that Vamp could magically come out of nowhere and kill her too. While ramen is delicious it's also not very healthy for you. THINK OF THE CALORIES GAIZ. Coupled with the fact that Otacon does nothing this = Otaku stomach pooch XD They're old farts now, leave them alone! *crawls under blankets* leave 'em alone! All of the anime are Miyazaki films because I like them and my anime movie bank was disturbingly empty :'D I kind of specifically chose Spirited Away for the movie Snake would sit through not because I think he would enjoy it-he'd probably think it was the shittiest piece of shit ever to be shit into the toilet of the movie world. It was more because of the whole idea of being taken away. Spirited away to the spirit world ^^; Yeah…I don't know ha ha.


End file.
